[Schoolly D]
Way, way down, in the ghetto Tee
The badass pimp stepped on the signifying rapper's feet
And the rapper said, Nigga can't you see
You're standin on my motherfucking feet?
The badass pimp said, Sure I ain't heard a cocksucking word you said
You say some more, I'll be standin on your motherfucking head
Yeah that's what he said
Cause every day, when the sun go down
The badass pimp come and kick that rappers ass all over ghetto town
But the rapper got wise, started using his wit
And said man, I'm gettin tired of this kick-ass shit
So early, early early the very next day
The rapper said, mister pimp, mister pimp I got something to say
There's this mean, big bad faggot comin your way
He talk about you so bad, turn my hair gray
Listen, listen to what he say
Listen to this mister badass pimp
This what the faggot said
He said, you know your daddy and he's a faggot
And your mother's a whore
He said he seen you sellin asshole door to door
Yeah that's what he said, listen to what else he said mister badass pimp
He said, your granny, she's a dyke
And your other brother, he's a faggot
And your little sister Loo
She's so low she sucked the dick of a little maggot
Yeah that's what he said
The badass pimp was mad
Jumped up in a hell of a rage
Hopped in his Caddy and loaded his 12 guage
Caught up with the faggot on 55th and Vine
Said you faggot, it's gonna be your ass or mine
The faggot looked at the pimp, and saw fear in his eyes
Said motherfucker, you better go fuck with somebody your own damn size
The pimp made his move, and thought he was fast
The faggot side-stepped him and kicked him in his ass
They fought all that night, and all the next day
That faggot kicked that pimp's ass in a hell of a way
Me myself I don't know how he survived
Came back to the projects more dead than alive
And the rapper, standin up on one of those tall ass project buildings
He said, DAMN somethin smells
He said, mister badass pimp look live you've been through hell
As I told one of my hoes before you left
I should've kicked your ass my motherfucking self

Caution: You are now annotating this song as

Edit the description to add:

Historical context: Historical context.

An explanation of the overall story (e.g. "In this song, Eminem corresponds with a crazed fan who...")

What is this?

The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

Schoolly’s classic reworking of the “Signifying Monkey” folklore. The “Signifying Monkey” is an African-American derivation (and mutation) of the (Nigerian) Yorùbá people’s trickster spirit Èṣù. In interactions with the Lion and the Elephant, the Monkey will most typically claim to “repeat” — while actually inventing — the Elephant’s harsh words about the Lion. Looking for vengeance, the Lion goes to see the Elephant and gets his ass soundly smacked down.

In Schoolly’s version of the tale, the “Signifying Rapper” is joined by the “Badass Pimp” and the “Big Bad Faggot”, filling the roles of the Lion and the Elephant, respectively. Interestingly, and uniquely for hip hop, the “faggot” of this song is one mean, tough motherfucker.

The beat samples Led Zep’s “Kashmir”. The song lost Schoolly quite a bit of cash when it was noticed in Abel Ferrara’s (classic) film Bad Lieutenant (used during an extremely graphic and disturbing scene). Abel went on record to say what we were all thinking: that “Signifying Rapper” is “50 million times better than ‘Kashmir’ ever thought of being” and that Zeppelin were no strangers to borrowing a chord or three for most of their songs. Try to find a copy of Bad Lieutenant from before the court case (i.e. with “Signifying Rapper” intact). It’s worth it!